The last couple days flew by in a whirlwind of packing, cleaning the lab, hosting my 2nd PolarTREC webinar and participating in Gary Wesche's second one, as well as saying "see you later" to all the wonderful friends I met in McMurdo and dreaming up plans for my first couple weeks back in the "real world." Yesterday afternoon, I left McMurdo on a C-130 military cargo plane along with 87 other people who are either finished with their time on the Ice for the season, or are taking a short vacation in New Zealand before heading back to Antarctica to spend the winter continuing to keep the Station running and science progressing.After the 5 hour journey from McMurdo, Antarctica to Christchurch, New Zealand, the first things I noticed were the color of the sky- all dusky...
I introduced you to one of the buildings in McMurdo Station a couple days ago, Building #1, the Crary Lab. While there are absolutely important and vital events occurring at Crary every single day, there is one building I give higher importance to in this town, Building 155. Building 155 is the hub of this community- there are living quarters, finance, housing, and recreation offices, a computer room with internet access, a craft room, the store, and most importantly, the galley. The amazing chefs, bakers, prep cooks, dining assistants, and supervisors that keep the people of McMurdo happy by keeping our bellies replete with delicious food are so tremendously appreciated by myself and the rest of the Town. The galley serves four meals a day- breakfast, lunch, dinner, and "mid-rats,...
This is the shortest journal I plan to write, aside from the few days when I did not write at all!I am nearing the end of this trip to Antarctica, and I am pretty busy with all the last minute items on my ever-growing "To Do" list. The DOM team arrived at Crary Lab to a completely empty lab space and somehow or other filled up shelves, drawers, counters, fridges, and freezers with countless science tools and pieces of equipment. By the time we leave, the lab must look as it did on our first day here- with no sign of the DOM team, except the project number on the door. There are items to pack into storage that need to remain warm over the cold Antarctic winter and others to box up and place in a huge cardboard container outside. The samples need inventorying and careful packing...
The DOM team is beginning to close up our Antarctic science lab for winter, as we get ready to depart this beautiful continent in just four days. Heidi and I compiled lists of all the Cotton Glacier and Canada Glacier water samples. Heidi, Mike, and Collin are carefully packaging up samples for shipment back to Montana State and Ohio State Universities for further testing. I am making sure all borrowed equipment returns to the correct department around McMurdo- science stuff to the Crary Supply Center and camping and field gear to the Berg Field Center. It is a bit of a bittersweet time- I think all of the remaining DOM team members are excited to return to our homes, but sad to end this experience.
I realized that although I have well over a month of my Antarctic time at McMurdo...
The stage is built, the instruments in tune, the speakers wired, and the McMurdo crowd is ready to rock Ice Stock!
This is the tenth year of the Ice Stock Music Festival at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Groups of talented amateur musicians all around the station form bands or practice on their own in preparation for this one-day celebration. There are ladies playing ukuleles (they call themselves the "Ukaladies"), folk singers, reggae-ska groups, an awesome 70's disco cover band, classical musicians, jazz trios, and a little bit of everything in between. In true festival style, booths are set up around the concert area to provide coffee (from Sawbucks Coffee), for artists to sell their wares, and for the Mt. Terror Rugby team to feed the masses chili, burgers, nachos, and hot...
To continue with the science journals, I would like to talk a little about another tool the DOM team uses to study, on a molecular level, the dissolved organic matter we collect in the water samples from the streams at the Cotton and Canada Glaciers. Already, I have shared information on a few biological tests we run on the water samples- Chlorophyll-a extraction and fluorescence (Dec. 11) and Bacterial Production (BP) by 3H (Tritiated) Thymidine Incorporation (Dec. 19), and one on a way in which we concentrate the water and DOM using Reverse Osmosis (Dec. 23). Today is all about "seeing" the DOM using UV-Vis Spectrophotometry.UV-Vis Spectrophotometry:The DOM team uses a dual-beam UV-Vis spectrophotometer to measure the light absorbed by molecules suspended in our water samples...
Happy Antarctic New Years Eve!Holly is a wonderful person to ring in the New Year with! He is such a patient and tremendous help to all the scientists (an PolarTRECers) that come though McMurdo Station. Holly, along with the other IT geniuses, Brody and Deke, keep computers running even if they were dropped into Mt. Erebus' crater, or bounced out of a backpack in the Dry Valleys. Holly is also very fascinating to talk to- his knowledge about life in Antarctica and advice on what to do and see in McMurdo has helped me get so much more out of my time in "Town." Thanks Holly![video]
The beautiful snow McMurdo is blanketed by has forced the DOM team into a couple days of quiet time- a chance to tie up loose ends with some data collection, begin to clean and box up the lab for the winter, organize samples, and rest. It is a well-deserved couple of days as Collin, Mike, and Heidi wait for the snow to stop falling long enough for them to take a helicopter out to the Cotton Glacier for the final sampling trip of the season.I used this time to answer quite a few very wonderful questions sent to the Ask the Team section of this PolarTREC site. Thanks to all of you who shared their curiosity with the rest of the Polar Enthusiasts! One of the questions I received asked about the shape of the Weddell Seals teeth and how it helped them chew through the sea ice to maintain...
Happy day-after Christmas to all of you in the States and elsewhere on your side of the International Date Line! I took a few days off from journal writing to celebrate the holidays with the rest of the wonderful and creative McMurdo community. (Are we called McMurdians? Or McMurdoites? What do you think?) In this journal, I am going to whirl you through the last few days of holiday cheer Antarctic-style. December 23rd-On Wednesday night, I went to the Chapel of the Snows, the world's southernmost building erected primarily for religious services, to see a performance of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I believe the play, put on by a dedicated group of amateur thespians, is almost as great as the Charles Schultz holiday cartoon classic. I loved their creative use of materials found around...
Michael is the only person in Antarctica I knew of prior to coming to the Ice. He is a great friend of my cousin, Nathan. Thanks to the wonderful online time-sucker called Facebook, Michael and I started chatting virtually before I left the States. Michael is nearing the end of his first contract as a GA (general assistant) in McMurdo, but unlike most GAs he is not leaving in February. He recently signed on to winter-over in McMurdo. His job in the winter is to help with the maintenance of McMurdo's many buildings. He is supposed to leave McMurdo next October, but is hoping to stay around for another Antarctic summer. [video]
One of the most exciting tools the DOM team has at the Crary Lab is designed and built by one of our very own team members, Chip Kilduff. Chip built a reverse osmosis (RO) instrument that separates out all the dissolved material in our water samples that is smaller than 0.45 micrometers (µm), or 0.00000045 meters (m). The goal of our RO is to remove the excess water down to a point where the dissolved organic matter that is smaller than 0.45µm is concentrated enough to measure. Filtering out everything larger than 0.45µm removes all the "big" stuff like bacteria from the water samples, leaving only the truly dissolved material like dissolved organic matter. This DOM concentrated water is run through a variety of tests to help the DOM team determine the chemical composition of...
When I talk to people around McMurdo, or classrooms of fabulous Polar Enthusiasts back in the States, I always describe dissolved organic matter (DOM) very simply as microscopic bits of organic matter that are suspended in liquid or frozen water. Now that I have worked with the DOM team in Antarctica for over a month collecting samples of water and preparing the water in a variety of ways to test for DOM and microbes, my understanding of DOM has deepened. Today, Yo helped me understand even more by creating a great analogy to describe DOM and why we use systems such as those on the Cotton Glacier to study this abundant source of organic matter. If I was to take my very simple description, "microscopic bits of organic stuff suspended in water," and change just a few words to,...
I find myself lucky that a lot of Antarctic history lies in regions of this fascinating continent that I have visited. In 1903, R.F. Scott discovered the Dry Valleys and described them in his journals. One of the lines he wrote about his discovery still rings true with the few people who have a chance to visit the area, "I cannot but think that this valley is a very wonderful place." A simple, but perfect description for an area I called "home" for almost a week.
History surrounds McMurdo Station, too. Around McMurdo Station there are buildings erected and used over a century ago by some of the most famous Polar explorers. In 1902, before Robert F. Scott happened upon the Dry Valleys, he set up his base of operations within site of today's McMurdo Station. When...
During the summer months, of which we are in the middle of right now, the population at McMurdo Station climbs above 1000 people. Not everyone on the station is involved directly with a science expedition. From what I understand, for every scientist there are 5 people working at the Station in support positions. If it was not for these wonderful people the Polar researchers could not throw themselves so wholeheartedly into their research. There are carpenters, cooks, engineers, weathermen, firefighters, doctors and nurses, shuttle drivers, helicopter and airplane pilots, and so on. This is a town and it takes many people to keep it running so smoothly. The people who work on Station typically work hours similar to folks up in the States, 8-9 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. In their down...
The DOM team is getting into a great groove in the Crary Lab at McMurdo Station. Christine, Heidi, and Birgit are running biological tests on water samples while Chip, Collin, Yo, and Mike work on chemical analyses. I pitch in when and where I can and I love learning so many new techniques and ideas. We are excited to see the fruits of our field sampling labor ripening into great data. Today I would like to introduce you to another one of the tests we perform on the sampled water and the purpose behind the analysis.Bacterial Production (BP) by 3H (Tritiated) Thymidine Incorporation:Before I begin to describe the BP test, let me start with a brief description on the structure of one of the greatest "building blocks" of life, deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA). Think of DNA as the...
Please give Birgit Sattler a loud, welcoming "griassdi" ("hello" in the Austrian-German dialect), the international element of the DOM team. Birgit is very well versed in Polar Science as she studies frozen environments and high altitude regions in her native land of Austria, as well as in the Arctic and Antarctica. She is interested in understanding what occurs on a microbial scale in this areas and how it exemplifies or models life on a more global scale.Birgit is leaving Antarctica tomorrow and all of the DOM team will miss her terribly. Out at the Lake Fryxell camp she was not only fully involved in all the scientific sampling we did, but she also made delicious dinners and desserts. Her stories of expeditions around the world kept the camp ringing with laughter. I...
Yo is an amazing scientist in the lab and in the field. Wherever his scientific curiosity takes him, he allows himself to become completely carried away. He has a passion for understanding the nuances of dissolved organic matter. Also, he has a great affinity for teaching others about his scientific loves. He goes so far as to "adopt" his graduate students into his family. Collin is one such adoptee of Yo's family.
Yo's exhibits the same intensity for the other passions in his life- his wife and daughters, fly-fishing and woodworking. During a conversation with Yo, you hear a sprinkling of all his passions described either in stories, examples, or analogies.
Enjoy this brief look into Yo's life.[video]
Today, I took a field trip with my McMurdo roommate, Debbie, out to her research site on the Ross Ice Shelf. Debbie works for the NASA Balloon Program and is in Antarctica to manage a project that launched a large, unmanned balloon into the upper limits of Earth's atmosphere. Other teams, like Debbie's are launching other balloons and instruments from the same site this season. Once in the air, the balloons orbit the Earth collecting data through the scientific equipment that is contained in payloads hanging below them. Scientists at NASA and Universities around the U.S. use the data to learn more about outer space and near space. I was very fortunate in that a balloon launch was scheduled to occur today! It is difficult to determine balloon launching dates and times because the material...
I had the greatest of intentions to share a glimpse into the life of another DOM team member today through my "Interview with an Antarctician" videos, but both Yo and Chip found themselves very busy preparing water samples and equipment in anticipation of lots of great lab work in the weeks ahead. Just as I was beginning to despair that I would have no fabulous event or idea to share with all of you today, Yo came zooming into the lab to let me know that there were Weddell seals on the ice very close to the edge of town. YeeHaw! I love seals and knew I could get within range of a few decent photos. Whew, I found my subject for the day and a better topic than writing about how I spent 8 hours filtering dirty water through a very fine meshed filter.
Weddell Seals, Leptonychotes...
Please say "hello" to Chip, the DOM team's engineer extraordinaire! Chip arrived at McMurdo on the same day as the rest of the team took off for Lake Fryxell. While we were at Lake Fryxell, Chip was busy completing adjustments to this amazing Reverse Osmosis machine he designed and built himself. Stay tuned for an upcoming journal on the process of Reverse Osmosis and more on the machine Chip built.Chip is in Antarctica for a brief time, only three weeks, but he is packing a lot into this time- Happy Camper School, a few days out at Lake Fryxell, a trip to the penguin rookery at Cape Royds, seal sightings, and a whole bunch more! He is hoping to return next year for a longer period, but this year he is anxious to get home to start skiing with his family and enjoying the holidays...
During the PolarTREC Live from the IPY! webinar on Wednesday, my wonderful mom asked a great question that I unfortunately never got around to answering. I apologize, Mom! She e-mailed me the question later in the day and I would like to answer it in this journal, and elaborate a little more.My mom's question arose from a part of the webinar in which I mentioned that the Cotton Glacier stream changes dramatically over the course of the Antarctic summer. She wondered what the changes were and why they come about. We first went to the Cotton Glacier on December 1 as part of a helicopter reconnaissance tour to see if the stream was flowing. We found two of the three stream sites we are hoping to sample from this year were flowing, but they were shallow, and not very wide.
On the 9th,...
Mike, Collin, Yo, Chip, and I are working out of the McMurdo Station Crary Lab right now, while Heidi, Birgit and Christine are collecting water samples, ice cores and conducting tests from the Lake Fryxell Camp.
We already have over 240L of water collected in 20L containers from the Cotton Glacier Streams and the Canada Stream. (Challenge questions: How many gallons of water are in 240L? How many 20L containers do you need to hold 240L of stream water?) There are a number of analyses we run on the water to determine the types of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and species of bacteria that reside within the stream system.Today I would like to introduce you to one of the tests we perform on the sampled water and the purpose behind the analysis.Chlorophyll-a extraction and fluorescence:...
"THANK YOU!" to all who joined the DOM team's first webinar today. It was so wonderful for us to hear your voices, read you questions, and share our experiences with you. Your participation made the early webinar time (6am in Antarctica) well worth it for the whole DOM team. I was very excited that we were able to coordinate communication between the DOM teams at McMurdo and Lake Fryxell- it was cool to have the field and the lab team sharing our ideas with all of you during the same webinar. I encourage you all to post your unanswered questions from the webinar, or questions that popped into your head after the webinar was over, to the Ask the Team section of the DOM PolarTREC page. The DOM team really enjoys your questions and the challenge of answering them concisely and...
Everyone on the DOM team slept in a little today, since we did not get to sleep until well after one in the morning.Today, our plans to visit the Canada Stream for more sampling and to check on the glass slides Heidi left in the stream were thwarted by visits to Lake Fryxell Camp by a gaggle of visitors. We had helicopters full of guests flying in and out of Camp all day long- some to film the DOM team for an educational Antarctica Environmental Compliance video, others to check out the efficiency of our lab buildings, a carpenter, and others to help us send our waste back to McMurdo Station. All in all, we had 10 visitors to Lake Fryxell Camp and over five helicopter visits. The DOM team just tried to lay low and keep out of the way of our visitors as they went about their required jobs...
Rise and shine DOM team! It is 4:00 in the morning at Lake Fryxell Camp. Time for us to take a half-hour walk down the frozen Lake to the Canada Stream to collect stream data, and four forty-five pound jugs of Canada Stream water. The jugs, called Carboys, were the reason for the early morning hike to the stream. We had to get the Carboys back to Camp by 9:00 am so a helicopter heading to McMurdo could pick them up and deliver them to two DOM team members working in our lab, Yo Chin and Chip Kilduff. Yo and Chip arrived at McMurdo the day the rest of the DOM team took off for Lake Fryxell. While we are out at Camp collecting stream data and water, Chip and Yo are setting up other science equipment at the McMurdo lab.
With the Carboys of Canada Stream water safely nestled into the cargo...
Let me introduce you to some of the equipment the DOM team uses while in the field to help us understand the make-up of the Dry Valley streams and to aid us in the collection of bacteria and DOM.
Birgit is our resident air-borne bacteria expert and she uses the Air Sampler to collect bacteria that is floating through the air in the Dry Valleys. We affectionately call the Air Sampler, "the Vacuum." As Birgit walks to stream sites and while we are at a stream, "the Vacuum" is quietly sucking air through filters. Bacteria stick to the filters and back in the lab Birgit can look at the filters and see what types of bacteria are floating through the Dry Valley air.
Before we really get into sampling the water and recording data about a stream, we always make sure our...
Let me give you a little tour of my Lake Fryxell home.
There are six semi-permanent structures at Lake Fryxell; a power shack, four lab buildings, and a Jamesway. The buildings are considered semi-permanent, because, if necessary, they can be disassembled and removed from the shores of Lake Fryxell. This is one way in which people in Antarctica try to keep the footprint of their camp as small as possible to reduce the impact on the land. The power shack contains two backup generators and other various bits and pieces of the Lake Fryxell power system. Most of the time there is no need for people to tap into the generators, instead our power comes from two sustainable sources; a solar panel and a wind generator.
Each of the four lab buildings has a different purpose- one is where we...
Take a look at almost any map of Antarctica that has place names on it and you will find McMurdo Station on Ross Island, but it is a little more difficult to locate the site of our field camp on the shores of Lake Fryxell. Lake Fryxell is located in the Taylor Valley within the Transantarctic Mountain Range of Antarctica. Much of the Taylor Valley and other valleys in the Transantarctic Mountains are free of glaciers and snow unlike much of the rest of Antarctica. This is due to the Mountains being so high that they act as a barrier, blocking the movement of the glaciers into the valleys. As a result, the Dry Valleys are one of the largest deserts in the world and I am working and living in them!!! How amazing is that!
We arrived at Lake Fryxell after another short helicopter flight...
I am still pinching myself in disbelief that I am even in Antarctica! Yesterday, had I actually started pinching, I would have arms that were completely black and blue by this morning, because my "oh my goodness I am in Antarctica" moments were so many and so often!Last night, the DOM team had a trip to the Cotton Glacier, where we are sampling water to look at the dissolved organic matter and bacteria. In true Antarctica fashion, the trip we took is called a "Reccy," which is short for reconnaissance. Our goal of the trip was to see if there were streams of flowing water in a few specific sites on the Cotton Glacier. We are planning to leave McMurdo shortly for the field camp at Lake Fryxell as the field camp is much closer to the sampling sites on the Cotton Glacier...
The DOM lab in the Crary Science Building at McMurdo is organized, tidy, and ready to help the team work on our experiments. Our food and supplies for the field are packed and ready to load onto the helicopter. My bedroom is clean and almost empty of all my stuff, for it is all smushed into a hiking backpack bound for the field camp at Lake Fryxell with me. Today is the day the DOM team is headed to our field camp!
I do not know what kind of communication capabilities we have at Lake Fryxell, so I cannot guarantee a new journal post everyday. However, I would love if you would keep on checking as some of my journals may come in crazy new forms...Please register for the DOM team's upcoming Live from the IPY! webinar. On December 9 at 9 am PST, the whole team is sharing information and...
Mike has a dog that is almost as cool as my sweet pooch Lucy is. Hank looks so proper while lounging on the couch with his paws crossed, is comfortable sitting on a three-legged stool, and even remembers to wear his lifejacket while canoeing with Mike and his girlfriend, Mary! Mike is a Post-Doctorate fellow at Colorado University and is the reigning authority on many of the pieces of scientific equipment the DOM team is using while in Antarctica. He eluded my pleas for a video interview for a few days, but I finally wore him down and now, I think he cannot wait for a follow-up interview![video]The DOM team is possibly heading out to our field camp at Lake Fryxell later this week! In preparation, we are taking a helicopter flight to the McMurdo Dry Valleys today or tomorrow, which will...
Collin is another great member of the DOM team. He is a graduate student in Yo Chin's lab at Ohio State University, an avid soccer player, and has such a dry sense of humor that he keeps the rest of our team laughing until our tummies hurt. ☺[video]Again, thanks you to all the curious students of the South Whidbey School District for their wonderful questions! If you have anything you would like to know about the DOM team, or other people living in Antarctica post your question to the Ask the Team section of this site!
Please say "hello" to Heidi, one of the two graduate students on the DOM team. Heidi is just starting her graduate program in Dr. Christine Foreman's lab at Montana State University. It is very exciting for me to work with Heidi as she begins to develop her course of study for her graduate program. There are so many directions to choose from when working with microbes. Microbes have a huge impact on the environment, there are historical lessons to learn and understand through researching microbes, otherwise known as bacteria, and there are commercial uses for many microbes. Heidi has a huge range of ideas to choose from, the hard part for her is narrowing down her field of study to a specific idea or hypothesis. [video]I still cannot believe I am a member of this team. From...
Time zones, different days, and the need for two-day weekend had everyone at McMurdo Station celebrating Thanksgiving for the last three days. "Happy Thanksgiving" greetings were shouted from person to person beginning on Thursday McMurdo time (Wednesday U.S. time) and continued until yesterday, Saturday McMurdo time (Friday U.S. time.) Remember, the time difference between my home on Whidbey Island, WA, which is on Pacific Standard Time, and McMurdo station is 21 hours, with McMurdo being ahead in the 21 hours. For all at McMurdo, the official Thanksgiving Day gala took place yesterday. The day began with the annual Turkey Trot 5K (3 mile) run. Runners suited up for the run from McMurdo Station to the New Zealand Scott Base in a variety of costumes- from shorts and t-shirts,...
I have shown you photos and mentioned the other people in my team quite often over the last week, but have not given them a chance to give their own introduction. So, this video interview with Christine is the first of many I hope to post while I am in Antarctica. [video]During my time visiting classrooms on Whidbey Island before heading to the Ice, I had many classes do a little homework for me. (Insert "groan" here.) I asked students to write down a question or a few that they would like to ask people who work in Antarctica. The students know that not everyone who is on the Ice is a scientist. In fact, there are more people who are not working in research down here than there are researchers. I asked that the questions my Polar Enthusiasts create not focus on science. Rather...
This afternoon, I returned from an amazing Happy Camper School. For a day and a half, 19 fantastic folks and I learned how to survive in Antarctica under almost any condition. From building walls and sleep trenches using snow, to cooking food and providing medical services to teammates injured in the field, our instructors equipped us with plenty of knowledge and skills for working in Antarctic field camps. Even though I slept so well in my tent in the snow last night, I am still quite tired because of all the new information my brain received and all the energy my body expended over the last couple of days. So today's journal, like the one I wrote on November 21st is not going to contain a lot of written stories and information- I am saving that for tomorrow. Today, I am sharing with you...
For just a taste of Happy Camper School, please watch and enjoy this video.[video]Happy Camper School introduced me to much more than just how to survive in Antarctica. There were many fascinating people at Camp with me. I met a group who are in Antarctica filming for a new BBC series called Frozen Planet, there was a team of scientists who are studying lava lakes on Mt. Erebus, people who help organize and keep McMurdo Station running smoothly, airplane pilots, and a bunch of other folks who have the most interesting reasons for coming to the Ice. Also, the camp is in a breathtakingly beautiful area. I could see Mt. Erebus, Black Island, White Island, and the New Zealand Scott Base from the Happy Camper site known as Snow Mound City. McMurdo Station is a great town, but to me it feels...
The sun is shining again! After a couple of rather blustery, snowy days, it is so nice to see the sun again. Although, with sun comes snowmelt which leads all the roads around McMurdo to become really muddy. Gotta love a town with nothing but dirt roads!
Tomorrow, Heidi, Collin, Mike, and I leave for an overnight class, affectionately called Happy Camper School. There we will learn how to build emergency shelters, what to do in a whiteout weather situation, how to use camp stoves, and a whole bunch of other very necessary and, as of right now, unknown things. I cannot post a journal entry from Happy Campers, so check out my blog in a couple days to find out more about my newly acquired survival skills.
In preparation for Happy Camper School and for our upcoming trip to the field camp at...
I am feeling a bit discombobulated today after 4 days of travel, tons of new sensations, Polar science and culture information overload, meeting wonderful new people, and trying to keep track of everything I learn and all the gear I receive.
Due to my very tired state of mind, I thought I would entertain you in this journal with a video of the flight from Christchurch to McMurdo, rather than some possibly incoherent rambling about my trip down to the Ice and my 1st day in McMurdo. I intentionally left the sound in some of this movie- the plane ride was LOUD! Thank goodness, there were earplugs issued during flight check in![video]
It is almost 11:00PM at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking outside it is still light out! There is snow blowing down as it has for the past few hours. I am...
I slept better last night than I have in over a week, so I do not feel quite as overwhelmed and disoriented today. This means I am ready to share a little more about the trip down to McMurdo (MCM)!The first leg of the journey had me up at 3:30am yesterday! Using one of the greatest kitchen gadgets that has not really caught on in the U.S., the electric tea kettle, I made a French press pot of coffee before frantically packing up all the gear that had sprawled itself all over my B&B room. The shuttle arrived at 4:00am to pickup Heidi, Christine, Mike, Collin, and I to drive us back to the CDC. It was so wonderful to drive down the quiet, early morning streets of Christchurch. The city is in full bloom and so lushly green with lovely gardens all over the place. Ahhh, summer!
Once at...
See ya' later United States! After what feels like months onboard planes and sitting in stuffy airports I have made it to Christchurch, New Zealand! Along the way, I met up with a few more members of the DOM team. Even though they all felt quite grimy after hours of the "canned" air on the flights, Heidi, Collin, Mike and Christine were great sports in letting me take photos of them to use in this little movie. I was hoping to get some awesome images of koalas and kangaroos from Australia, but flight delays had the DOM team running from one plane to another so we could get to Christchurch on time. Maybe on my way home in January I will not only get a photo of a koala, but hold one too! (I have heard they have very sharp nails- sharper than most cats. Ouch!)
As is rather...
I joined the tribe of "official" ECW monsters today!
Heidi, Mike, Christine, Collin, and I just returned from the United States Antarctic Program's (USAP) CDC where we tried on, exchanged, returned, and packed all our Antarctic ECW.
When I arrived at the CDC there were two orange duffel bags with my name on them packed with all the gear the USAP determined to adequately keep me safe, even in the extremely cold Antarctic. There were all types of long johns, goggles, jackets, socks, gloves, hats, and ski pants inside the bags. The duffels were labeled- one with a "carry-on" tag, and the other with a "checked" luggage tag.
Having never met me, the CDC staff packed my bag with sizes they assumed would fit me based upon information I filled out on one of the...
Yesterday, I left my home and my fabulous dog, Lucy, to head into Seattle for a two-day visit with my family before taking off for New Zealand and Antarctica. Do not worry; Lucy gets to hang out with a wonderful friend of mine while I am on my adventure.Before I left Whidbey Island, I received a great list of questions from Ms. McCourt's fifth and sixth grade class at Island Christian Academy. The questions her students composed were so thoughtful. They addressed a lot of my Antarctic expectations- "what if this happened...," "what about this...," "why...?" As I have not explored Antarctica before and have never worked with Dissolved Organic Matter and microbes found in glacial waters, my answers are full of speculation and hopes. I had a blast answering...
Heee Yaw! GRRRRR! Roar! Over the last couple of weeks, the Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) Monster attacked schools on Whidbey Island, WA. Were students frightened? No way! They were enthusiastic, excited, and so ready to hang out with the ECW Monster. Who is that hidden under the ski goggles, balaclava, overmitts, and Big Red jacket? Yup, you guess it! That is me- Sarah Diers, PolarTREC teacher extraordinaire.
I had the pleasure of visiting over 30 classrooms to share a few of my Antarctic expectations and a little about the science I am involved with while on the Ice. In addition, I had the chance to learn a bit about Antarctic history and share that with a few groups of middle schoolers, too. Stick with me and you will get to learn about the amazing history of Antarctica in future...
Earlier today, I was alerted to the arrival of a package on my front porch by the tremendously loud "woof-woof" of my pooch, Lucy. When I opened the door, a UPS deliveryman carrying a huge orange duffel bag greeted me. After coaxing Lucy away from the petting she was receiving and thanking him for the delivery, I closed the door, grabbed a pair of scissors and started cutting off all the zip-ties binding the duffel shut. The bag was from the PolarTREC office in Fairbanks, AK, which helped me figure out what was packed inside. I am visiting classrooms over the next couple weeks and asked Janet and Kristin with PolarTREC to help me out by supplying some examples of items I'll need while in Antarctica. I was so excited to get a look at the Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear that was...
I recently returned from the WA Coast where I chaperoned a great group of 7th and 8th graders on a 25-mile backpacking trip. This trip is not an easy one- even for experienced backpackers. There are no nicely groomed trails to walk- instead there are gravely beaches and slippery-slimy, seaweed covered boulders to heave bodies and packs over. The campsites are primitive and to get to them often requires a huge hike uphill. There are no fancy dinners, just a lot of trail mix and dehydrated meals. The weather, in just one day, can swing from 70 degrees and sunny, to 40 degrees, blustery, and pouring down rain. Sounds like fun, right?!?! To the Adventure Education students it is! The students in this program are resilient, awesomely cooperative, and keep me laughing all day long.Check out the...
The overcast skies outside my office window, the chill in the air as I walked my dog this afternoon and the weather forecast for lots of rain have me so excited for the return of my favorite season- FALL! Before I get too cozy with my wool sweaters and cups of hot cocoa I want to share with you the adventures I experienced this summer.
The first trip of my summer was a road trip through Idaho and the Southwest corner of Montana. Joining me was Lindsay Knippenberg, the PolarTREC teacher on the Microorganisms in Antarctic Glacier Ice expedition. Along our trip, we stopped in Boise, ID to visit another PolarTREC teacher, Mike Rhinard. Mike, Lindsay, and I spent the Fourth of July in Cascade watching a parade, fireworks, and rafting down the Payette River.
After a few more stops in Idaho,...
Check out the logo designed by my wonderful friend, Dan M., to represent my team and our Dissolved Organic Matter in Antarctica expedition.
Are you wondering how this logo represents my expedition? Well then, it is time for a logo anatomy lesson!
Any guess as to what the RED arrow is pointing at? If you think it is pointing at an outline of the great Southern continent, Antarctica, you are absolutely correct!
The GREEN arrow is pointing to the name of my expedition. I know it is a bit of a mouthful to say "Dissolved Organic Matter," which is why my team has already shortened the name to "DOM."
The nickname of my expedition helped Dan and I come up with a mascot. Meet Dom, a fluffy "creature" wearing sunglasses and flip-flops. The PURPLE arrow is...
The lab my 6th and 7th grade scientists have either dreamed of or dreaded all year long is finally here- the Dissection Lab. The number of middle school scientists who fear this lab is pretty darn small and, for the most part, once they get over the smell of the preserved organisms the initial hesitation just disappears. So, what are my scientists dissecting? Let me give you a few clues… they are marine organisms- an echinoderm and a cephalopod. The echinoderm likes to eat bivalves by inserting their stomach into their prey and using their digestive acids to break down the meat for easier eating. The cephalopod is a great appetizer you often find fried and served with tarter sauce at seafood restaurants.
Do you need more clues? See if you can guess from these pictures!
Do you think you...
Ahhh, the final day of the official PolarTREC Orientation. I am thoroughly exhausted, overwhelmed, and absolutely ready to continue sharing my adventure with all of you. I know that I still have a lot of learning to accomplish before I head to Antarctica. I hope to continue journaling and practicing all my newfound technology skills over the next many months. I am excited to learn how to incorporate video into my website entries. Lots to do, thank goodness I have plenty of time.
The day ended with a light dinner during which I got to see some of the Polar science lessons and amazing ideas that previous PolarTREC teachers created. My students will soon get to explore Glacier Goo and create models of different types of sea ice. I had a chance to meet a few more people who are working in...
Newspaper articles, TV interviews, public speaking engagements, oh my! I was so focused on meeting the other PolarTREC participants, learning about the programs expectations, and figuring out all the technology that I completely forgot that I have to start connect with the media and getting my incredible expedition some well deserved publicity. Also, I really want to share my adventure with all interested people during community, classroom, or organization appearances. My LMS students, I plan to rely on you to help me prepare for this aspect of the adventure. Who knows, perhaps you'll make it into the publicity as well!
I was very enthralled, and a little intimidated, by the morning presentations about outreach opportunities, so I was completely ready when the time came to head out for...
I am truckin' along on learning all the technology pieces that I am so excited to incorporate into my expedition. The plan, as it was written in this week's agenda, was to understand photo uploading to my journal by yesterday and to dedicate today to learning how to include audio and video clips. I just figured out how to add photos, after a hair-pulling, pretty darn humbling day of learning, so I am a little behind. At one point today, my mascot, Drop, sucked all the photos out of my computer and made me start all over again.
Here is the story behind Drop. I was asked by PolarTREC staff to bring an item to the Polar Orientation in Fairbanks (where I am now) that represented my class, myself, and the area where I live. My students were in charge of deciding upon the item. Every class...
Happy Fat Tuesday! I would like to thank Lollie for infusing the early morning atmosphere with Fat Tuesday spirit by decorating the conference room with Mardi Gras beads, masks, and blaring New Orleans music!
Whew, another whirlwind of a day. The PolarTREC staff did an excellent job of "winging it." The finish of the Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race occurred mid-morning, so rather than sit inside and practice the very necessary skills of incorporating photos into my journal I, along with the rest of the PolarTREC crew, strolled to the Chena River to cheer the mushers and their teams on. Luckily, the weather was a balmy 18 degrees F this morning, because I hung out on the frozen river for over an hour and a half waiting for the teams to cross the finish line. All the dogs crossed the...
Hello from Fairbanks, Alaska!
Prior to getting into the details of my journey up here to the Great White North, I thought I'd give a little more introduction into who I am and what I am doing in Fairbanks (and what I will do in Antarctica this fall.)
I teach in a small middle school in Langley, Washington. Langley is located on the South end of Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound, about 1.5 hours North of Seattle. Whidbey Island is a long island that has 4 main towns- Clinton, Langley, Coupeville, and Oak Harbor. Oak Harbor is probably the most well known of our towns, as it is home to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. On the other hand, Langley is a quiet town with a strong community of artists and is surrounded by many family-owned organic farms. Langley Middle School has about 400...